


Bond of Love

by Thymelady



Category: Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: F/M, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Language, Sacrifice, Saving the one you love, Supernatural connection, Witness bond, everybody knows that I love you except you, ichabbie - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-13
Updated: 2016-03-13
Packaged: 2018-05-26 11:14:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6236449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thymelady/pseuds/Thymelady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Moving the symbols closer, she felt the pull. The symbols longed for the tablets. Parted, but joining with the tablets to fulfill their purpose. Yearning to connect. Yearning for the manifestation of the true bond. </p><p>Like strong magnets, they snapped into place. Immediately, a new and so much stronger onslaught of fellings hit her. His feelings. Pain. Fear. Anger. Worry. Love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bond of Love

**Author's Note:**

> Episode 3x14 and preview of 3x15 inspired me to write this, plus discussions on Tumblr about what the tablet and the symbol can actually show Abbie and Crane. Both good and bad. ;) Pure speculation, of course. Mainly, I just want Abbie to admit to her feelings and Ichabbie to get together.

Crane was gone. Not like the time he had packed his things and left, but gone as in missing. Not without a struggle, because the laboratory in the archives was a mess.

Something strong and ice-cold gripped Abbie's heart. She had to actively swallow back the onslaught of fear and worry. There wasn't a moment to lose. 

The tablet. The symbol. They were on the work bench. Abbie hastily pulled both tablet and symbol apart. Tablets side by side. There were dents outlining where to put the parted symbol. Each part of the symbol in her right and left hand. 

Moving the symbols closer, she felt the pull. The symbols longed for the tablets. Parted, but joining with the tablets to fulfill their purpose. Yearning to connect. Yearning for the manifestation of the true bond. 

Like strong magnets, they snapped into place. Immediately, a new and so much stronger onslaught of fellings hit her. His feelings. Pain. Fear. Anger. Worry. Love. 

He called out for her. She had felt him in her head for over an hour. But now she was THERE, seeing him. Feeling him. Being him. 

Crane. Tortured by The Hidden One. 

An invisible force was trapping him against a rough wall, the malevolent god stood in front of him and held him prisoner. A gash on his cheek and on the ribs. Blood. The shirt was torn. Abbie could look down on him and see it. She could look up and see his head slumped to the side; in pain but not defeated. 

"Stay with me, Crane..." she mumbled out loud without knowing it. He heard. He lifted his head slowly. 

She felt his emotions again. Still the pain and the fear. But now: the everstong love. And the renewed hope. 

It was so beautiful. So devastatingly beautiful. As beautiful as the symbol, no - more than that. 

Abbie screamed and pulled her hands from the symbols.  

***

Pandora had come to them. Her demands were simple enough. They had a part of her box. Her husband had Crane, Abbie's fellow Witness. Abbie agreed at once. 

Jenny demanded a discussion in the Masonic cell, where she hoped that Pandora couldn't hear them. The remains of the box was there, so it was a risk. But she had to try and reason with Abbie.

"Do you realise that Joe spent $1,000,000 on that box!?" she nearly shouted to Abbie. 

Abbie looked at Joe guiltily. 

"Pay back plan?" she asked.

"Hey!" said Joe. "I didn't mind spending them. I was prepared to hand it over to Pandora when she choked Jenny! Of course you'll do the same for Crane! You need him back!"

They all fell silent. 

_So I'm turning as impulsive as Joe for the one I love..._

The thought came to Abbie as a matter of fact. She had known long enough. 

"But you shouldn't have, Joe!" Jenny protested. "She wants it back for a reason! She needs to have her powers back! We're handing over the thing she needs to wreck even more havoc!! Have you all gone mad??"

"Do you suggest that we sacrifice Crane!?" Abbie yelled back, suddenly losing her cool. 

Jenny flinched. "Of course not...! But Abbie," she said soothingly. "We need a plan. Sure, make her think she'll get the box lid - but only after we get Crane. And then we try to..."

"Try what?" Abbie said and lowered her head, defeated. Crane was being tortured as they spoke. She knew it. And The Hidden One didn't mean to just harm him. He was going to kill him. How badly harmed was Crane already?

"Get out of there! WITH Crane. WITH the box!" 

"OK," Abbie relented. "But I want to make it absolutely clear: if necessary, we give up on the box. We NEVER give up on Crane!" 

"Yeah," said Joe. "But if we... can't get him out of there? If Pandora is playing a trick on us?"

Silence again. 

"Then you leave, with the box. I'll stay," Abbie was calm and determined again. 

"Abbie!" Jenny exclaimed. Both she and Joe looked thunderstruck. 

"It's us The Hidden One wants. Together, we might be able to mess up a few things." 

"For fuck's sake, Abbie! You're as mad as him, when you were in The Catacombs! If you both die in there..." 

"We've been in this situation before, Jenny," Abbie said grimly. "The sword of Methusaleh? If one falls, the next one lifts the sword. This is no different. You continue the fight the best you can. When you can." 

"Don't..." Jenny was close to tears. 

Joe looked just as devastated, but strangely resigned. 

"We need weapons and any supernatural item that can help us," he said. "And then we need to go back to the box lady and present our terms." 

"How can you be so - " Jenny began. 

"Oh yeah - one more thing!" Joe interrupted. "As Crane would say: we need faith." He pointed his finger in the air and added: "Faith, sisters Mills!"

It was so spot on and so stupid that both sisters had to laugh in defeat.

Abbie smiled to herself. Jenny and Joe would have each other. Maybe it would be enough, if she and Crane fell. 

_But hear me, Grace Abigail Mills. It is not our fate for one of us to bury the other. We shall be victorious or defeated together._

Abbie could hear those words as if Crane had just uttered them in front of her. It was more than just a memory. It had been one of his prophesies then. It was a prophesy now.

"Oh, and one more thing," Joe said. "I volunteer to NOT carry the box lid!"

***

"We shall be victorious or defeated together," she quoted to him, an hour later. 

Jenny did amazing things with Pandora's box lid. Joe had willingly grabbed onto it in a crucial moment and half-turned into a Wendigo again. Instead of heading The Hidden One's command, he slashed the god's face while Jenny managed to keep both the god's and Pandora's weakened powers at bay. She shone worse than when the shard was inside her. 

All and all, pretty intense. But Abbie ran straight to Crane, who lay slumped on the floor where he had landed when the evil god turned his interest on Jenny and Joe.  

"Did you hear me, Lieutenant?" he muttered laboriously while she yet again held his big, stupid head against her chest and wiped the blood off his cheek.

"I saw you, through the tablets. Felt as if I was here. And I always hear you." 

He chuckled and winced in pain, grabbing his side. Her hand landed on his. 

"You always hear me?" he gasped. 

"Mm-hmm," she admitted. 

He bent his head back and looked up at her. He was tucked against her bosom once more and while he truly appreciated this position, he fervently wished that it was under a different circumstance. Finally. He also wished he was in a state to fully enjoy it.

She looked so worried about him, her strong arm held him up against her, while the other had moved back to his cheek. His blood had soiled her V-neck and her radiant skin. When she saw how he peered at her with one raised eyebrow, she blushed and smiled involuntarily. 

"If we get out of this alive, Lieutenant..." 

"We will."

"...and if you ever intend on stop playing deaf - will you please let me know?" 

Her smile widened. 

"Oh, you will know, Ichabod."

She used his first name. He suddenly didn't feel any pain at all. 

"You just have to play with the tablet and symbol again some night - without oven mittens. They already tell you when it's the right time to act."

_Dear Lord, she already knows I did that!? That I saw her, through the tablet? Saw her exposed... on her bed?_

"Yeah, Crane," she replied to his silent questions, and laughed. "We can't un-know now." 

He might have blushed if he'd had any more blood or shame to spare. His free arm sneaked up around her neck and pulled her down for a heartfelt kiss. 

"Once again, your thirst for power ruins my plan, Pandora!" The Hidden One boomed to his wife as his powers still held Jenny and Joe at bay. "But how can they be so strong?"

Pandora had turned away from her husband and was regarding the two Witnesses on the floor, who had forgotten all about the fight and the pain. Now, she saw them in flesh and not through her magical pond. Kissing, instead of lying dead in the streets, as had been foretold.

"Because of their love, which you despise," she replied. "Because it is stronger than ours." 

Her eyes turned to yellow slits as she turned to her husband. 

***

Pandora and The Hidden One had fled, for now. Or rather, Pandora had stopped the malevolent god and pulled him with her, somehow. Joe had turned back to himself and the box lid in Jenny's hand had stopped glowing. Relieved, they turned and looked at The Witnesses. They didn't really see much, Abbie's hair was offering them some needed privacy. But there was no doubt of what they were doing.

"Really? Now, of all times?" Jenny said sarcastically. 

"Hey, give them a break," Joe chuckled. "They really deserve that."


End file.
